Medical devices, such as stents and prosthetic valve devices, can be introduced into a lumen of a body vessel via percutaneous catheterization techniques. These medical devices may be expandable from a first cross-sectional dimension that allows for percutaneous device delivery to a second cross-sectional dimension at a treatment site. In the expanded state, the medical device has a larger cross-sectional dimension than the catheter used to deliver the medical device. Accordingly, a crimping device is typically used to crimp (i.e., reduce) a cross-sectional dimension of the medical device so that the medical device can be loaded into the catheter and advanced to a treatment location in the body. At the treatment location, the medical device can be removed from the catheter and expanded (e.g., via self-expansion, balloon catheter expansion, or mechanical expansion means) to provide a treatment function.
Prosthetic heart valve devices (e.g., prosthetic mitral valve devices) can have a large cross-sectional dimension in the expanded state relative to other medical devices (e.g., stents) delivered via percutaneous catheterization techniques. For example, some prosthetic mitral valves can have an expanded cross sectional dimension of 1.97 inches or more. It is often desirable to package and store prosthetic heart valve devices in their expanded state until just before implantation into the patient. For example, prosthetic heart valve devices can be stored in a sterile solution up until the time the prosthetic heart valve device is ready to be loaded into a delivery system for implantation. Therefore, it is often desirable to crimp prosthetic heart valve devices in the operating room and only a few minutes before a procedure to implant the prosthetic heart valve device. Such procedures preclude pre-crimping by the manufacturer, and benefit from crimping devices that are highly portable and readily available as a sterile system.